Two factual errors mar one short Nordic Walking alert in Florida newspaper.
"If Southwest Florida has a hockey team, how much stranger can it be for a cold-weather pastime like Nordic Walking to be a popular sport here?" is the rhetorical lead-in to a short "Things to Do" item announcing an upcoming Nordic Walking workshop in the Fort Myers News-Press. Hockey in Florida indeed seems strange to me to, but even stranger is the mistakes in this very short item.
The unnamed writer of this informational snippet didn't understand that while Nordic Walking might have its roots in Scandinavia and in the Nordic skiing realm, it started as a summer activity. Then again, I suppose that warm weather in Scandinavia, where Nordic Walking started in Europe, or in the upper Midwest, where fitness walking with poles developed in the US, would be a pleasant winter day in southwest Florida.
The piece goes on to explain, "Nordic Walking — fitness walking with bamboo poles — offers a very efficient aerobic workout. Initiates say it can improve your physical condition regardless of your age or ability." Bamboo? The shafts of real Nordic Walking poles -- the kind that are necessary to learn anywhere near effective technique are made of carbon-fiber or lightweight aluminum, with metal tips, rubber caps or paws to fit over those tips and a decent grip and strap system.
The News-Press did alert readers to a Nordic Walking workshop on March 15, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at North Fort Myers Community Park (2021 North Tamiami Trail, behind the North Fort Myers Library). The workshop costs $28, including poles that are "yours to keep." I called Libby Olive in Fort Myers to ask about keeper poles at that price. She said that instructor Hilmar Fuchs does provide bamboo poles without straps from Home Depot "just so people can get the idea of Nordic Walking." IMO, participants will get a very bad idea about Nordic Walking if they use junky, unsuitable poles.
She added that Fuchs, who is contracted to conduct these workshops, himself uses real Nordic Walking poles. I Googled Hilmar Fuchs and found that he has been teaching tai chi in the area for several years. Perhaps he needs to brush up on Nordic Walking before he sets about introducing other people to it.
"Wear tennis shoes and comfy clothes, you will be outdoors," the paper advises. For information, call Libby Olive at 239-652-6002. Should you wish to register, call 239-533-7275 (registration code: 2008R34017).
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Department of Misinformation VIII
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13 comments:
Hi Claire,
One of Hilmar's clients called me a couple years ago and insisted I help Hilmar launch his Nordic Walking Program. That individual LOVED what Hilmar does for seniors in the Cape Coral area.
Hilmar has a huge stash of bamboo poles that he uses for other classes and discovered that they work great as an intro to Nordic Walking. He is a REAL fitness professional. His teachings are success focussed.
Participants in his classes receive a FREE Shipping code so that they can order REAL Nordic Walking Poles online at WWW.SKIWALKING.COM or by calling our toll free #: 877-754-9255.
Keep up the good work and have FUN Ski Walking,
Pete Edwards
getfit@skiwalking.com
Thanks, Pete, for your endorsement of Hilmar's Nordic Walking program. Unquestionably, an instructor's encouragement and ability to motivate count for a lot. And I certainly hope that most of his students take you up on your offer for real poles (or buy quality poles elsewhere) and then go back to Hilmar or someone to learn how to use them.
I also looked at Hilmar's website (http://www.mh-health.com/), clicked on Nordic Walking and took a good look at the images on that page. Frankly, they still concern me. Those bamboo sticks come up somewhere between those people's elbows and shoulders, which might be OK for the warmup or balance exercise shown there but are not useful for actually walking.
I also am conerned about those thrifty seniors -- the folks who enjoy bargain early-bird restaurant dinners, pull their AARP cards out for discounts on everything and in otherways stretch their retirement dollars --who decide that the bamboo sticks are "good enough" for them and won't spend the money on real poles.
I hope that other Nordic Walking and fitness experts will weigh in on this, not to slam Hilmar and his methods, but to let me and other visitors to this blog know whether my reaction is off-base or on-target.
I'm with you, Claire. Hillmar might be teaching some kind of fitness activity, but with those fishing poles or whatever they are it can't possibly be nordic walking.
Hi Claire,
I looked at Hilmar’s website too and I saw a few pairs of our SWIX Nordic Walking VIP’s. Also saw some great stretching and warming up going on with the bamboo poles. I’ll tell ya, Hilmar’s bamboo poles are better than a lot of the cheap twist-locking poles flooding the marketing from China and Taiwan. For an intro class I think what he is doing is fine. I have only heard rave reviews from his class participants.
I took an order from an older man from Hawaii a couple years back. He read in Dr. Phil’s book that if you walk with poles you will lose weight. He cut some sticks from his back yard and started walking with his sticks and dropped 15 pounds! Of course the sticks hurt his hands so when he read about our comfortable patented Nordic Walking straps he order a pair of our SWIX VIP’s – straps patented by the Salomon Ski Company.
I just took an order this afternoon from a nice lady from Florida that lost 30 pounds walking with some cheap poles made in Taiwan. She mentioned how her current poles vibrated terribly and the twist-locks didn't stay locked. She loved the concept of walking with poles, but not the twist-lock system. She is excited that her new one-piece poles will be custom fit to her height and include real Nordic Walking Straps. Her new poles are going to be lighter, safer and much more durable than her cheap twist-locking adjustable/collapsible/telescoping poles.
I teach Nordic Walking Classes almost everyday and I travel with 5-6 big bags of demo poles – enough to handle class sizes up to 40 –50 individuals composed of a variety of heights. If I run low on a certain length I snag a new pair from my retail stash and add it to my demo inventory. Not everyone has the luxury of having that much inventory and Hilmar’s unique intro to Nordic Walking is fine by me. We aren’t going to outlaw cheap twist-locking poles and/or strapless poles, so why criticize a little temporary bamboo action?
I always tell my classes that if they have a garage or attic full of downhill and/or cross country poles that all poles are good – just get out there and use them. I emphasize that correct length poles and proper technique are important. They also discover for themselves during my classes that our comfortable patented straps are radically better than the 50cent-loop straps or no straps at all. Quality one-piece poles practically sell themselves.
Keep up the good work Claire!
Walking with poles is the best!
Pete – owner/founder/coach The American Nordic Walking System and WWW.SKIWALKING.COM
getfit@skiwalking.com
This is unusual, but perhaps his Tai Chi background has lended itself to the 'natural' choice. He should offer different lengths of bamboo poles so they fit better. Why not have real poles available for purchase right after the class?
Hi Claire,
thanks for pointing out the benefits of proper sticks for Nordic Walking.
While I'm certainly not an expert on Nordic Walking I do very much enjoy taking lessons with Hilmar since about 18 years now (mostly TaiChi).
My experience is that while equipment matters the real key to a healthy lifestyle is always WHAT you learn and HOW you get guided along the road. There is nothing more important with sports than having a teacher who knows how the body works, what to do and what to avoid.
It might added some good perspective to your blog post to mention that Hilmar is a certified practitioner of holistic medicine, a certifed Aerobic instructor, a TaiChi teacher and a martial arts instructor (he's praticing all of the above since 20-40 years, depending on the discipline).
It's certainly important to encourage people to get good equipment if they want to keep up Nordic Walking. However it's even more important from my point of view to encourage senior citizens to live an active lifestyle and provide them easy ways to try out alternatives without blowing their often tight budgets.
My 2 cents.
Alfons
Alfons.Staerk@web.de
I’ve been having a good think about this posting since I first saw the post yesterday…
I have to admit that as soon as I saw this article about using bamboo poles for Nordic Walking my heart sunk! And to see that it is an instructor who is doing this my heart sunk even further (why would an instructor want to use bamboo poles instead of what we’d probably term the proper equipment?) However, I then decided to take a step back and look at this from 'outside the box'.
Let’s say for example this article was about a community youth leader in some back street ghetto area of a city who was working hard at getting and then keeping the ‘youth of today’ on the straight and narrow. Now, this youth leader had heard about Nordic Walking and had even taken an instructor training course and now he was back in his community with no money or funding…
He has an idea. “Yep, it would be so great if someone would gift us a few dozen pairs of those fancy, flash, ‘proper’ Nordic Walking poles but nobody has, you know the ultra safe ones. So I can either scrap my idea of introducing all these kids to Nordic Walking or I can come up with a solution.”…
He decides to find a solution and that solution is to get hold of a couple of dozen pairs of broom handles and use those as Nordic Walking poles. So, off he goes to the local hardware store and speaks to the kindly owner who agrees to gift the youth leader with a couple dozen pairs of broom poles. The youth leader is ecstatic. He has his poles and in the coming weeks he introduces 100s of youths to Nordic Walking. Soon news spreads and other community leaders get involved and not only that but lots of adults are getting involved including people with hip problems, knee, problems, balance problems etc etc before long the local press pick up the story and the great work that the community leader is doing in his community, introducing hundreds of people to Nordic Walking is headline news!
Would we be applauding this youth leader for the fantastic work he is doing in his community in introducing people to our wonderful activity or would we be saying “oh but he shouldn’t be doing that, not with broomsticks?” I guess different people would have different opinions on that one?
OK – before you say “David, I think you may be losing the plot, particularly as you have in the past been very vocal in your recommendation that people buy proper, quality poles from a quality manufacturer. You’re now going from recommending quality to recommending broomsticks!” In my defense I will say that yes – In my opinion people should where possible buy quality equipment. However, on reflection maybe trying to get people to use the ‘proper’ equipment on day one isn’t the best way forward if we want to make Nordic Walking a mass participation sport / activity in countries where English is the first language. Perhaps trying to push everyone into buying the supposedly ‘proper’ equipment, which for many people is not an insignificant purchase smacks of elitism and if there are alternatives that will get them started we should consider them.
Perhaps what we should be focusing on when it comes to poles is this:
-1) Is whatever is being used as poles fit for purpose? Eg can you give people an experience similar too the ‘real’ thing if it is meant as an introduction?
-1) Is it safe, eg under normal circumstances does the equipment put the user at too great a risk?
Ok – I haven’t lost the plot, or at least I don’t think I have – and I am not necessarily endorsing the use of broom sticks or bamboo poles. What I am doing is saying, perhaps we should think out of the box a little more than we sometimes do. Rather than being so pedantic about poles, wouldn’t we all serve our Nordic Walking community better if we focused on getting a lot more people involved in our ‘concept’. Whether that’s introducing them by way of fancy ‘proper’ $100 - $200 poles or via broomsticks and bamboo poles. Does it really matter?
Anyway – Food for thought perhaps?
By the way, Pete and Alfons have made some great comments and I agree with what they are saying. I know Pete (we have communicated on a number of occasions,) and I have a lot of respect for the great work he does. Where Pete and I differ is that Pete is all for quality one piece poles versus adjustables and I favor quality adjustable versus one piece poles but that’s only a technicality. In my experience quality adjustable poles are as good as, and as safe as, quality one piece poles although neither are totally infallible. However, I agree with Pete that we do need to be careful with some of these cheap poles out there in the market place but in my opinion that applies to any cheap poles not just adjustables but one piece poles too…
…However, it is all very well for people like Pete and me and other Nordic Walking professionals out there because we know what to look for - Newbie’s don’t! And this is the problem and this is why I tend to recommend, certainly if the newbie doesn’t have anyone on hand to give them proper advice, that they select a quality pole (be it adjustable or one piece) from a quality manufacturer such as Swix (as Pete mentions) or eg Exel, Leki, Fischer, Exerstrider and others.
Hope that helps...
You're doing a great job here Claire in promoting Nordic Walking - Well done!
David Downer
Nordic Walking Forum Owner:
http://www.nordicwalkingecommunity.com
I really appreciate the thoughtful comments here -- not just for my own enlightenment but also for visitors to this blog who read the comments as well as the posts. In fact I sent an E-mail to Hilmar, alerting him to this post and inviting him to please respond. I haven't heard from him.
Alfons - I knew some of Hilmar's credentials but not all of them. It was therefore surprising that he is so cavalier about equipment.
David - Your comparison of this class to someone supplying make-do equipment to a group of disadvantaged youth intrigued me. Your questions about the safety of the ersatz poles and their ability to provide a similar experience are what I'm concerned about. It the mythical Nordic Walking youngsters takes a tumble because of inadequate poles, it's no big deal -- but quite another if an older person falls,
I do believe that infectious enthusiasm for any activity is a big plus. I'm somewhat but not totally reassured reasured by these comments,
Hi Claire,
I would absolutely endorse your concern re an older person falling. All instructors must carry out a 'risk assessment' before they instruct in any given situation (failure to do so may leave their insurance 'not worth the paper it's written on- 'all' instructors do have insurance presumeably?) and clearly there are some different factors to consider depending on whether they are coaching a bunch of kids or a bunch of elderly people.
However, 'older people' are probably the most diverse group of people out there. One day you could be working with the 'frail elderly' and the next day with a group 'same age' who are into mountaineering, marathon running and jumping out of airplanes freefall parachuting - clearly an instructor would (hopefully) deal with these two groups very differently - So again 'risk assessment' is essential.
Whilst bamboo poles may possibly be ok for the later group I think it would perhaps be very ill advised to give bamboo poles to the former group. In fact this former group I would consider it to be pretty essential to work with them one-to-one and not 'strap' them into poles even if you are using strapped poles, whilst the fit group would be fine in a group coaching situation and with straps... A case of 'horses for courses.'
Further to my previous reply - Yes this posting has really got me thinking 'laterally'. I was out NW with a client (a school teacher) yesterday and we were discussing this whole 'equipment' issue. We were saying for example that children 'adapt' all the time eg they see some tennis on the TV and then they find a couple of old bats eg table tennis bats or even a couple of frying pans and any old ball and then they 'play tennis' with each other. There are of course many examples of how kids and even adults will adapt to 'play' an activity - So perhaps we all (and that includes me) should be more open minded to 'possibility', rather than be so quick to condemn.
As Tom Rutlin so wisely says - "The mind is like a parachute, it works better when it is open!"
David Downer
Forum Owner
http://www.nordicwalkingecommunity.com
How frustrating to have our activity so mis-described - and potentially so damagingly so.
I was quite appalled to find "Nordic Walking" taught with cheap bamboo sticks and wrote about it here. I'm somewhat mollified by some of the comments, especially Pete Edwards's endorsement of Hilmar's classes and David Downer's more measured reaction, though I still have reservations about it. Again, thrifty seniors who start out with those sticks might just decide they're good enough, thank you, and not invest in the genuine product. I only regret that Hilmar himself has not responded to my E-invitation encouraging him to post his own response. Perhaps in time he will.
Just an interesting sidenote. REI is marketing a trekking staff pole made partially from bamboo. Are nordic walking poles next?
http://www.rei.com/product/765288
Hi, Claire,
As an attendee of Hilmar's program today in N. Fort Myers, I have some comments.
1) The workshop was full - 30 people plus more who showed up hoping for a spot. If the workshop had required the purchase of "real" poles, I can guarantee there would have been no one in attendance. Most people in this area aren't going to spend over $50 on something they don't even know if they're going to like (Seniors and non-Seniors alike); Parks & Rec can't (and won't) make the investment in real poles; so, you do the best with what you have available. (Besides, have you ever been here and seen the terrain? FLAT! We practiced on a soccer field, but real walking won't provide any more variation.)
2) Hilmar did a great job in explaining the techniques in the classroom and then moving everyone outside to try it themselves. He made sure from the outset that everyone knew that the bamboo poles weren't the optimal equipment, but were simply an affordable stand-in. He showed the features of his real poles and encouraged participants to try them so they could experience the difference.
3) I think the workshop achieved its goal to introduce people to Nordic Walking and its benefits and let them know where to go for further resources. Isn't that what's most important?
I can understand why some have a problem with bamboo poles, but the bottom line today was that Hilmar probably started several people down the road to further explore Nordic Walking (myself included). I hope that outweighs the negatives of using bamboo poles.
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